Steve didn't want to go so soon, wanted to put his trip off for a while, but Danny insisted he go and he couldn't say no, especially since his best friend nearly died because of him again. And his tearful goodbye with his ohana only made him feel worse, like he was making a huge mistake leaving everyone he loved. So when he sat down, he tried to push away all his feelings and continue his journey of self-discovery. He needed this. But less than five minutes later, Steve grabbed his luggage and made his way out of the plane, trying to avoid all the passengers boarding.
He found a way home and forced himself to drive slow so he could come up with something to say to Danny, the love of his fucking life. It was time he (they) stopped denying it. He nearly broke completely waiting for Danny to wake up in that hospital and hoped to hell something like this never happened again - he'd forever feel guilt for his incident but thank God his best friend was on the road to recovery. When he got home, he thanked every deity he could think of that everyone seemed to have left. He loved the team but didn't think he could face them so soon - maybe in a few days when he and Danny hopefully came up for air. But he was completely done with the task force and wouldn't return. It was a little weird, to be honest.
Danny's head snapped up when Steve opened the door and he blinked at him. "What the hell are you doing here? Did you forget something?"
Junior stood up and started backing away. "I think I'm going to go - you two probably need some privacy." He fled to his bedroom.
"You scared the kid away," Danny joked. He grabbed his cane and stood up. "You want to explain to me what's going on?"
"I got off the plane." Steve stood there in silence for about thirty seconds before he blew out a breath.
Danny chuckled. "Did you just pull a Rachel?"
Confused, Steve finally got it about a minute later. "Did you just make a Friends reference?"
"You did it first so don't you look at me like that. No judging!" He wagged his finger at Steve and tried to stay steady on his feet - he did not want to go down and embarrass himself - that was the last thing he needed right now after the week (decade - but mostly year for Steve - from hell).
Steve couldn't help it - he laughed. "Oh, Danno - please don't ever change who you are."
"You going to kiss me or what? I assume that's why you're here." Danny tapped his foot impatiently as he got right to the point.
Steve gasped. "Holy shit."
"Yeah, I said it out loud. What are you going to do about it?"
"Kiss him already!" Junior yelled from his bedroom.
They both rolled their eyes. "You're going to pay for this!" Steve yelled.
"Eh, Danny's going to have to catch me and I think you can't do it anymore, old man!" he called back.
Steve's lips twitched. "He's definitely going to pay."
"Steve? Just fucking come here," Danny urged.
Steve charged forward and kissed him, grabbing a hold of the man he loved to keep him upright - they couldn't afford for him to fall. "Wow."
"Wow is right. Thanks, Rachel."
"I'm going to fucking kill you, Danny."
"You love me too much but good effort."
"God help me." Steve didn't even need to say those three little words - he and Danny knew exactly how they felt about each other, had been saying it for years.
"God help me," Danny shot back.
"God help me!" Junior yelled back.
"Go find Tani before I kick your ass, Junior!" Steve laughed when he tore down the steps and out of the house, presumably to see their other teammate. "At least we have some privacy now."
"That we do. In too much pain for sex right now - sorry - but sit down so we can watch a movie." Danny dropped down and patted the seat next to him. Steve immediately joined him and the two of them held hands as they tried to pick out a movie. They fought over what to watch on Netflix for about half an hour before giving up in frustration.
They tried to situate themselves and Steve moved into a horizontal position, smiling when Danny laid down his head on his lap. "This is comfortable."
"You're a nice pillow." Danny yawned and laughed when they eventually settled on a rerun.
"Guess this is our new normal. But Danny, what the fuck am I supposed to do now that I'm done with the task force?" Steve didn't want to worry about it but he couldn't stop thinking about his next step.
"Don't worry about it now, Steve - seriously, stop worrying because you're going to give yourself a headache if you keep that up. We'll sit down and talk it over soon. Just relax and think about going to therapy, because you need it."
"Hey!" Steve protested. But then he sighed. "Yeah, you're right." He should have gone years ago, taken this more seriously, but the year from hell had finally done him in. He had nothing left to give anymore, couldn't cope with all that trauma.
"At least you admitted it." Danny yawned again.
He sighed. "I'm running on empty, Danno. And I think we should sell the house - it holds too many bad memories. We'll find another place where we can grow old on the beach." Steve couldn't bear to live here any longer, which is one of the reasons he had tried so hard to flee.
Danny's eyes flew open but he nodded his head in agreement. "Sounds good to me."He paused for a second. "And nice job slipping in that Jackson Browne reference." Then the two of them quieted down for a while, eventually falling asleep.
They had a big day ahead of them - Steve hoped Junior stayed quiet because he couldn't wait to surprise the hell out of the rest of their team. And he'd take it day by day from now on - no more white-knuckling the situation, not that he had any energy for that anyway. With his ohana by his side, Steve knew he could handle anything in his way, even if he didn't exactly feel like that at the moment. Danny wasn't about to let him suffer alone, however, and neither would anybody else. They'd circle the wagons and do their best to take care of Steve.